Woods & Waters.

January 08, 1989|By John Husar.

Cook County`s forest preserve biologists last week began stocking 7,500 pounds of large northern pike in three lakes. Some 850 fish up to 10 pounds went into Busse Lake on Thursday. This week, another 650 will go to Tampier and 320 to Saganashkee Slough. Biologist Chris Merenowicz expects 70 percent survival.

``We found we hadn`t been getting many northerns in our surveys,``

Merenowicz said. ``But northerns are tough to find, anyway.`` Some pike were lost at Tampier when vandals last summer blocked both ends of a tube leading to spawning flats.

Merenowicz said the stocking now will give the fish a chance to adapt before heavy fishing pressure resumes in the spring. He hopes that older breeders will provide a good hatch next spring.

Chief fish biologist Dave McGinty last week opened to ice fishing all forest preserve ponds except Busse Lake, thereby reshaping an outdated policy of keeping all forest preserve ponds closed until all were uniformly safe. In the past, all ponds remained closed until each offered four inches of ice. That was hardly fair to local anglers when safe ponds were forced to forego fishing while the district waited for channels and bridge areas to freeze at large places like Busse.

- Ice fishermen are having field days at Indiana`s Willow Slough following announcement of state plans to drain and rehabilitate that once-remarkable fishery. Daily creel limits of bass and pike have been doubled from six to 12 with no size restrictions. The Department of Natural Resources plans to drain the shallow 1,300-acre impoundment near Morocco after goose nesting this spring to rid the slough of a sudden infestation of carp.

Manager Dave Spitznagle said carp now represent perhaps 70 percent of the fish volume following a major hatch two years ago.

The drawdown will occur sometime after a new building at Willow Slough is dedicated to the late Bill Madden, long-time area manager who died last year. Any large gamefish that can be salvaged will be saved in nearby ponds for breeding when flooding resumes in the fall. Rehabilitation work in the slough will include cutting some boat channels and providing nest areas for geese. Biologists suspect that quality panfish will be available in another year, with keeper bass appearing in perhaps three years.

- The Illinois Department of Conservation settled a long-standing dispute on the Lower Cache River in southern Illinois last Thursday, winning the right to protect some of our most precious swamps. The Big Creek Drainage District agreed in court to assign maintenance of an 8-mile stretch of the river and its tributaries to the DOC, maintaining a dam that the district had wanted to remove.

According to spokesman Jim Leach of the Attorney General`s Office, the agreement allows the DOC to build a second dam on the east end of the district, if needed to protect swamp conditions on state and Nature Conservancy properties. The state, in turn, has agreed to remove obstructions like logjams that threaten to flood farmland. Assistant Attorney General Jim Morgan said the settlement came after the drainage district faced significant tax increases to cover its legal fight and a subsequent election changed membership of the district`s governing board.

- Area turkey hunters are gearing toward Illinois` proposed fall shotgun season by trying to establish a Chicago-area chapter of the National Wild Turkey Federation. An open house will be held at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 10 at Veterans Memorial Hall, 635 Parker, Lombard. Currently, some 30 chapters have 1,500 statewide members who support the state`s turkey stocking program. For details, call Mike DiRienzo at 629-4128. . . . Four new counties will be open to turkey hunting in Illinois this year-Hancock, Fayette, Monroe and Washington. They bring the total to 28.

- This `n` that: Football fans wearing Bear colors will gain free admission to the Chicago Boat, Sports & RV Show at McCormick Place between 10 and 11 a.m. on Sunday. The perfect warmup for a Super Bowl preview. . . . Top area bassers Ray Marinier, George Liddle and Fred Chiappetta will reveal their spring secrets at ``Super Sunday of Fishing,`` Jan. 15 at Hawthorne Community Hall, 5202 W. 29th Pl., Cicero. Call 748-3906 or 887-1314.